A CLEAR endeavour to address development and environmental challenges in the Carribbean region

The Caribbean region consists of many small islands that span a large geographical area. The region faces numerous challenges in managing environmental and development problems and in ensuring that it has sufficient numbers of qualified personnel to meet its developmental needs. Many of the issues that need to be addressed in the region require cross-disciplinary collaboration. Consequently, the Centre for Caribbean Land and Environmental Appraisal Research (CLEAR) was constituted within the University of the West Indies (UWI), to embark on the necessary research and development efforts. This paper reviews the major issues that faces the Caribbean region and discusses how CLEAR is effectively assisting with sustainable development, environment protection and capacity building. The Center promotes multidisciplinary research, undertakes education, training and extension activities such as short courses, workshops and conferences as well as professional services including spatial database development. A review of the work recently completed by the Center is provided and future directions are presented.